1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photography apparatus such as a digital camera having a communication function and to a photography method carried out by the photography apparatus. The present invention also relates to a program that causes a computer to execute the photography method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image data obtained by a digital camera are recorded in a portable recording medium such as an IC memory, a Memory Stick, and a Smart Media. By inputting the image data recorded in the recording medium to a personal computer, one can carry out image data manipulation, generation of an electronic photograph album, attachment of the image data to an e-mail message, and printing of the image data. Since a recording medium has limited capacity, a plurality of recording media is necessary for storing a large amount of image data, which is costly.
For this reason, a method of storing image data in external data storage installed in a DOPE store or the like by sending the image data from a digital camera has been proposed. More specifically, in order to send image data from a digital camera to external data storage, a method of communication between the digital camera and the external data storage via a mobile terminal has been proposed (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10(1998)-341302). Furthermore, a method of communication with data storage by a digital camera having a function of a mobile phone has also been proposed (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11(1999)-8823).
When image data obtained by a digital camera are input to and manipulated by a personal computer, it is often desirable that photography information representing the time and the location of photography is inserted in an image. However, adding the photography information to image data is troublesome. For this reason, a digital camera having a PAS (Personal Handyphone System) as a mobile phone installed therein has been proposed (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9(1997)-65268). The digital camera receives photography information comprising location information and time information sent from a PAS base station, and adds the photography information to image data to be recorded in a recording medium.
However, according to the digital camera described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9(1997)-65268, the photography information received from the base station comprises only the location information of the base station and the time information. Therefore, such photography information cannot assist a photographer by notifying a photography point desired by the photographer, for example. Meanwhile, a digital camera storing a photography condition that controls camera operation as a control file and carrying out photography according to the photography condition has also been proposed (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-324374). However, if a photographer forgets recording of the photography condition in the control file, photography cannot be carried out according to the photography condition.